A powerleveler's guide to blasters (very long)

Problem is, most people make a statement about if you get hit as a blaster, you are going down, health won't matter. This is untrue. Blasters that use AOEs can be on the receiving end of a lot of attacks that add up quick. Sure, if you hit 0, it won't matter. If you take small amounts of dmg over the course of a medium to long battle, it makes a big diff. Single target blasters are a great example. It also helps a lot for AOE blaster downtime between groups (er... ones without SG, who actually get hit).

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Your assessment is based on copying to test server, slotting up to 4 SO's, and "not really noticing a difference", so your opinion is better? srmalloy posted his experience with Health and found it useful but your "test" is better proof and people shouldn't listen to him but they should listen to you?


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If he had super speed, super jump, or teleport, he wouldn't even have to worry about that salvo of grenades, and thus the regen from health would be irrelevant.

Also, if he had any of those powers, he would have reached his next group long before health's regen would have mattered.

As noted, it is the lameness of hover/fly that are the only thing making him even notice the benefits. With any of the other 3 travel powers (that don't suck), he'd be avoiding that salvo of grenades *AND* reaching his next group to fight a ton faster.

Understand my post now?

Thanks.

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If he had super speed, super jump, or teleport, he wouldn't even have to worry about that salvo of grenades, and thus the regen from health would be irrelevant.

Also, if he had any of those powers, he would have reached his next group long before health's regen would have mattered.

As noted, it is the lameness of hover/fly that are the only thing making him even notice the benefits. With any of the other 3 travel powers (that don't suck), he'd be avoiding that salvo of grenades *AND* reaching his next group to fight a ton faster.

Understand my post now?

Thanks.

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No. You are invalidating the effects of Health because you think Fly sucks as a travel power and is too slow. That has no bearing on whether Health is useful for him. He likes to hover over mobs and takes some damage. He likes Fly. Telling him Health sucks and the only reason he thinks it's good is because he uses another sucky travel power, Fly, certainly doesn't bolster your argument. If Health sucked as bad as you claim, then he, of all people would back up your claim since he, supposedly, takes more damage using Hover/Fly when fighting mobs, as opposed to the other travel powers, as you claim, and Health would have no noticeable effect in his health recovery.
And also, any of the other travel powers would not help him from receiving return fire. If he is in range when he attacks, unless the mobs have their attack range debuffed, they will always return fire. So, having the "sucky" Fly power has even less bearing on your "proof".

Again, if YOU don't like Health and think it's useless to slot, fine. Don't slot it (unfortunately for you and those who don't like Health, you cannot choose not to take it if you want Stamina). If he likes it and wants to slot it, let him. If you have the right to say that, in your opinion, it sucks and is useless, he has the right to disagree. It's extremely rude to tell people to ignore him just because you think he is wrong, especially when you claim their only reason they defend the usefulness of the power is because they've made a mistake and can't admit it.

If you want to give facts, then post the actual values - like the calculator spreadsheet. Let people decide for themselves whether Health garners enough of a benefit for them to slot.

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Again, if YOU don't like Health and think it's useless to slot, fine. Don't slot it (unfortunately for you and those who don't like Health, you cannot choose not to take it if you want Stamina).

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Good post, covered what I was going to say regarding return fire.

Might interest you to know that you don't have to take health to get stamina. You could take both swift and hurdle instead. It's not like a technology tree in other games, you just need 2 of the lower 3. Personally, knowing how much Health helps, I don't understand why anyone would do this, but hey... it's an option.

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lol i was taking his guide seriously untill he said "you only get 4 power pool powers" . . then why do i have 6? I have Teleport friend, foe, self, hover, hurlde, health. . . where do people get this number 4?!?! you can have as many power pools as u want. . . if you dont want your primarys , then dont take them ,but telling people u only get 4 pools is wrong. . guide not worth reading past that line. LoL power leveling!!! HAHAHAHA without HOVER!! LoL!!! hahahahahahaha what an @$$

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What he meant is you can only choose from 4 power pool SETS. Once you have picked a power from 4 different SETS you are done. You have choices from 3 sets now, you will be able to select from only one more. You CAN pick all of the powers within those 4 SETS, if you so choose. It would be stupid, but you could.

First, let me compliment the original poster for his guide. After reading it, I rolled up a Fire/Fire blaster and am now levelling at a rate I never thought I would achieve. Nicely done, sir, and thank you!

Secondly, on the Hover issue. This is my second Fire/Fire Blaster and I must confess that I thought it was heresy to pass up on Hover. "How can I survive any extended engagement," I thought, "if I can't Hoverblast?" Now that I'm Walking The Path, I can see why people are dismissive of Hover - extended engagements are incredibly rare with a build of this type, and SuperSpeed will get you out of harm's way much faster than an equally-slotted Fly.

Whatever the case, I love seeing so many powerlevellers weighing in with their opinions, because it gives us less-l33t types an insight into how to improve our heroes.

Thanks, all!

"unfortunately for you and those who don't like Health, you cannot choose not to take it if you want Stamina"

You dont need to take Health to get Stamina, you can take Hurdle and Swift (or whatever its called) instead.

Sniper 7,
31 AR/Dev,
Virtue

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Might interest you to know that you don't have to take health to get stamina. You could take both swift and hurdle instead. It's not like a technology tree in other games, you just need 2 of the lower 3. Personally, knowing how much Health helps, I don't understand why anyone would do this, but hey... it's an option.

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Yep, you're right. I tend to forget as I usually take Health. I don't usually plan on hurdle.

/bump

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Again, if YOU don't like Health and think it's useless to slot, fine. Don't slot it (unfortunately for you and those who don't like Health, you cannot choose not to take it if you want Stamina).


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Well this explains a lot. You don't know what the hell you are talking about. You don't even understand the basics of how power pools work.

You can take swift and hurdle to open up stamina.


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If he likes it and wants to slot it, let him.


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Hey, Mr. Wizard, I'm not standing over him controlling the way he plays the game. He asked for advice. I gave it to him.

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If you want to give facts, then post the actual values - like the calculator spreadsheet. Let people decide for themselves whether Health garners enough of a benefit for them to slot.

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Aha. Because everyone knows that in games like this, all that matters is how the numbers crunch out. Practical use of a power never actually matters.

Tell us again (wrongly) how power pools work?

Interesting stuff. But still, it seems, 46 pages later, folks are arguing powerleveling versus casual gaming issues.

For me, with my Energy/Energy blaster I couldn't care how much faster anything is compared to the hover/flight route. Just the fact that I get to play a game like this where I can choose to fly is worth it. Sure, if getting to 50 and then looking around wondering what to do is your thing, go with it.

Having come from EQ with a 65 with around 240AA's I'm in no particular hurry to reach max level and am having fun doing door missions and story arcs.

But, if getting there fast is your goal, I think the original guide is good. Now, on the other hand, what the guide lacks is telling you what to do with your time once you have rushed through all that content.....

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For travel powers, it takes two slots to max out Superspeed (with SOs),

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Hmm. I've been trying out different enhancement strategies. Any thoughts on single-slotting SS and then using the Spring/Prestige slot to max out your speed?

This is assuming Hurdle/Health/Stamina, since someone mentioned that you could max out SS with one slot and a single-slotted Swift instead of a Hurdle. I kinda like to keep Hurdle for the additional jump distance and just use a speed-boost on Sprint.

Gee I never knew hover and flight sucked so much?

LMAO

Nah when hover is SO six sloted with 2 end reduces/2 flight spd/2 defense and flight is SO six sloted 2 end reduces/4 flight spd.

They are really sweet, but most players are so darn concerned about damage and six sloting other powers they negelect other powers that need to be sloted up too in order to be useful and productive.

Oh Super Speed or SS, fun power there guys if ya like boucin off walls or catching corners of buildings and or running into other players while moving so fast that you don't even see spawns, not to mention its obnoxious sound.

Hover the slowest travel mode in the game but a very nice panoramic view thats almost totally uncongested and great for those one of a kind screenshot sniper shot moments.

Flight no where near as fast as TP or SS. Gee its only just a hair faster than a fully enhanced Swift and Sprint mode. But ya get to see what your getting into sizing up the groups and surroundings before you get there which gives you time to plan your attack not rushing in half cocked.

But awe yes for a balanced travel power pool its Hover/Flight/Super Speed, without a doubt in my opinion.

Super speed for getting some where fast or pulling a Steve McQueen(The Great Escape) and getting out of a real jam.

And flight for flying around scoping out target groups and thier surroundings.

Then hover for those times when ya just don't feel like getting intimate with all twelve of them purples at once down on the ground.

Yep thats the three travel powers I have and I know the good and bad of all 3 very well. They are just like any other powers in the game, you take the good with the bad and make the best of it

BTW Robinson thanx for sharing the info, but no offense its not the ultimate blaster build, maybe to you but I wouldn't even waste my time trying it out. It just doesn't sound like a fun char. Maybe its a killin machine but it just sounds too easy and looks like not a challenge to play. But I guess thats part of what powerleveling is about, just getting there quick and not caring what ya miss out on.

Just read the guide at the top of this thread, very well written. Too bad about all the crap attached to the rest of the thread, but at least it keeps the guide from being archived.

One minor suggestion - don't take Maneuvers, take Stealth instead. Stealth is a better defense buff for soloers (7.5% Stealth vs. 6.25% Manuevers, according to Hero Planner). If you're following the guide, you'll already have Super Speed so the movement penalty isn't a problem. The invisibility isn't important if you already have Cloaking Device and Super Speed.

Why take hover and fly and have to use up 10 more slots for a travel skill which is slower then taking SS - for the scenery? 10 slots is alot of slots to overlook no matter how much scenery you miss.

Now things will more then likely change when PvP breaks out because no matter how fast you can run on the ground, being able to hover or fly will have its advantages over being ground locked. Although super jump or even combat jump may be able to make up the gap.

LOL Dude take stealth and manuvers. Ever hear of stacking as in when using stealth you can use powers that effect you and the surrounding world, its not like invis, phase shift and cloaking were as you can only use powers that effect only you.

One of my favorite past-times is using stealth while hovering, fighting that way gives me the bonus of both defenses each of the powers have which I have also SO enh sloted and when I have hasten going which I have also SO sloted for defense, it gets even better because of the three defenses being stacked at once. So just take a guess what happens when you stack in manuvers petty 6.25% defense to my other 3 defenses LOL

Well if you think about it, hover and flight can be used with only 3 additional slots. I have 2 chars that have it each way.

Hover 1 SO End Reducer/1 SO Defense/1 SO Flight Spd

Flight 1 SO End Reducer/1 SO Filght Spd.

But no matter what the bottomline still is whatever you like best and what works for you that your happy with. Not everyone can just take someone elses build or opinion and it fits them perfectly.

wow. nice post, dude. i wish i hv read this thread earlier, lol. thanks!

Ok, based on info provided on this thread I've made a template for a fire/energy blaster. I went with energy since devices is constantly getting reviewed for "adjustments".

Fire/Energy Blaster
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1 Fire Blast
1 Power Thrust
2 Fireball
4 Buildup
6 Hasten
8 Fire Breath
10 Stealth
12 Aim
14 Superspeed
16 Hurdle
18 Blaze
20 Health
22 Stamina
24 Maneuvers (I've heard this isn't working right at the moment but I'm hoping they'll fix it by the time I can choose it)
26 Blazing Bolt
28 <Left blank at the moment>
30 <Left blank at the moment>
32 Inferno
35 <Left blank at the moment>
38 <Left blank at the moment>

As you can see there are some power slots at the higher levels that aren't designated. I'm honestly not sure what to put there. I'm considering maybe the Fighting pool so I can get Tough and Weave. I've heard the Weave power includes some defense against psychic attacks.

Any advice/suggestions?

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Ok, based on info provided on this thread I've made a template for a fire/energy blaster. I went with energy since devices is constantly getting reviewed for "adjustments".

Fire/Energy Blaster
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1 Fire Blast
1 Power Thrust
2 Fireball
4 Buildup
6 Hasten
8 Fire Breath
10 Stealth
12 Aim
14 Superspeed
16 Hurdle
18 Blaze
20 Health
22 Stamina
24 Maneuvers (I've heard this isn't working right at the moment but I'm hoping they'll fix it by the time I can choose it)
26 Blazing Bolt
28 <Left blank at the moment>
30 <Left blank at the moment>
32 Inferno
35 <Left blank at the moment>
38 <Left blank at the moment>

As you can see there are some power slots at the higher levels that aren't designated. I'm honestly not sure what to put there. I'm considering maybe the Fighting pool so I can get Tough and Weave. I've heard the Weave power includes some defense against psychic attacks.

Any advice/suggestions?

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Forum won't let me edit my post so I have to do it this way. I decided to take Stealth at level 6 and Hasten at level 10. I figure a bit of defense at that level would be good since I'm leveling in the sewers.

great post

heya, i'd highly recomend copying/revising this guide to the FAQ/Guide board.

Apparently, all the boards except for the FAQ/guide board has a built in autowipe feature that will autowipe threads due to inactivity and i'd hate to see a good guide get eaten by the heartless board monster . (i'v counted no less than 5 from the guide guide so far )

also i'm compiling a list of guides (in adition to the ones in the guide guide in my sig), and i'm trying to get everyone who can to make the guides in the FAQ/Guide forum. PM me if you see one that isn't there! (or reply to the guide guide with a link to the guide you want added!)

(sorry if this is popping up all over, i'm trying to help snazz up the FAQ/GUIDE forum)

Thanks a Bunch!

I remember seeing something about Inferno not being that great for raking in the xp. At first I agree...when Inferno isn't slotted...it is basically a deathtrap.

Once I got it slotted 3 dam 2 recharge it is actually pretty good....especially paired up with aim+bu. If I pop a rage insp I actually hit the cap with it and can take out groups of minions that are red or purple to me. Stamina get my end back quick enough so that by the time I find my next group, I'm ready with the breath/FB combo.

The big decision now is whether I will slot up the last slot with recharge or damage. I'm leaning towards recharge...but like the idea of being able to hit the cap without insps.

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heya, i'd highly recomend copying/revising this guide to the FAQ/Guide board.


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How?